Let me let you into a little secret. One that I have kept close for long time. I haven’t given an individual piece of work a national curriculum level for about 15 years! In that time I have been praised in Ofsted inspections for giving high quality feedback and having a well thought through approach to assessment. I have had a clear rationale for assessing work and have been convinced that this approach works. But recently I have sullied myself. I have  been working in a school where I have no choice but to give individual work a level. Yuck!

I felt guilty, like a liar as I wrote 4a, 5b, 6c next to the essays I marked. Why? Because I knew deep in my soul that I didn’t have a clue what these numbers and letters meant, that I was plucking them from the air and making them up. The students were either ecastic or down hearted whey they saw the number and letter on their work, convinced that it was worth something, instead of the hoax that it really always has been.

I can truthfully say that I am over the moon that levels have gone, or will go across the land. But, isn’t it a shame that no-one on SLT  has thought through exactly how to replace them. Why? is it:

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